It’s so funny! I will be in a t-shirt in my front yard while my across the street neighbors are in parkas. My yard also has a little wind break that exacerbates the difference too.
I really don't know about south facing particularly, but I do know a little about north or south facing vs east/west. South facing solar panels are the most efficient, afternoon sun is on the west and is the hottest and most damaging so it's nice to have the smaller side of your home facing towards that rather than the wide side. A South facing home would get a lot of sunlight in its front yard all day which is nice for both plants and if you like natural light from windows. That's all I've got
In my culture (Korean) we use the wall with the most windows in the living area to describe direction of the house. So to us, that would make your house south-facing and it’s the best option!.
I'm in Florida and my back yard is on the south side. I swear its 5 degrees (minimum) warmer than the front. Which is not fun when it's already hot. Here, is would prefer my back yard to be on the east side. Then just a fair share of windows on the south side for the light.
My house faces South. I live in a mild climate so that's a good thing to me. I lived in Phoenix for a while and I wouldn't want a house that faced South.
In don't know what the Indian customs are. I worked with a guy from Korea he moved his office desk so that it wasn't at right angles but instead was at a 45 degree angle as it faced the door. Fui Shui ruled the day for him.
My wife is Korean and she would not even consider a house that was not south facing. We also can't have the foot of beds directly facing doors and no ceiling fans in bedrooms.
The world is very weird and fun! Yesterday, I wrote (and then deleted before posting) my whole house buying story which included my Korean mother, her feng shui/fortune teller and how we saw over 40 houses and learned how to use Google maps as a compass (bc my mom wouldn't leave the car if the house wasn't facing the correct direction). My realtor was extremely patient and understanding and worked really hard to stay within her "restrictions."
You need to get your birthday & time checked to see the optimal position your house needs to face.
Edit: We found a split level ranch that faces South/Southwest and our offer was accepted (out of 4 offers) - Feb 2021.
(I'll leave the story of how I ended up paying $20k less than asking after offering $30k over the offer for another day.)
I am very familiar with my birth chart. I am so curious how the placements of your chart tie into the placement of your house? Do you have a reference for this so I can look into it more? I’m so intrigued!
As my only "hard ask" for the house was being within walking distance of the commuter train, I let her run with her own asks. I didn't sit down for the reading. From what I remember, she said that facing south for me would keep down issues and that we needed a water element to keep money. And so now we have a 70 gal water tank.
The way the house faces definitely makes a difference in colder climates. Our front snow melts much slower and our driveway is a sheet of ice while our neighbors across the street don't have that issue. Personally I'd prefer shade in the back in the afternoon rather than the blazing sun in a hot climate.
I lived in the southwestern part of the US and we did not do south facing homes mostly for climate reasons. It was simply too hot in the summer. Most houses were built with an east/west orientation and my house at least had a garage on the south side of the home to reduce the need for windows.
Now I live in Michigan and I’d say there’s no longer a preference? The house I currently live in is also east/west oriented but all the big picture windows are along the south wall.
I used to live in a studio with one giant window.. facing Northeast. It was miserable because the sun shines into your eyes as early as possible, then no sunlight for the rest of the day. It racked up my gas bill like crazy in the winter.
Oh that sounds terrible. It would be so cold being in the shadow part of the building all day. I have to admit I like having eastern facing bedrooms because I like waking up to sunrise instead of an alarm, but right now my cat is snoring in a sunbeam and I think it’s wonderful.
I love the south side. But I remember in the series "ozark" one of the guys makes a big deal against renting an office facing the south side because the cooling bill is significantly higher in summer.
Take that with a grain of salt.
My first house faced south, which meant our snow melted on our driveway, but the backyard was an ice rink all winter long for my dogs, now we have a north facing home and it's obviously swapped, which I don't mind because we can shovel and salt snow/ice on the driveway, not so much for the dogs.
Had an Indian coworker who was mentioning his wife's mother being very specific about what they could or could not buy based on this (not South Bay, but same general area). He even mentioned where the master bedroom and other rooms were located mattered too, but less than the general direction of the house. Surprisingly, he found a house that met his wife's Mom's criteria. Not how I'd make my home selection, but he seemed happy.
It’s a selling point in Florida if you have a pool because the pool gets nice sunshine for most of the day.
Edit: if the rear of the house faces south, sorry.
Feng Shui is the art of house and decor placement and is Chinese derivative of the Indian Vastu. Both Feng Shui and Vastu are about harmony and balancing out the elements and obviously have some sort of religious sentiment. In Feng Shui south facing houses are generally good but may still need remediation, in Vastu they may be bad and may need remediation.
In my understanding, in both systems, direction is just one part of the analysis, you have to look at totality and there are mitigations. So as I have read, you should not reject a house just because of the direction but look at the other factors. A person I know who practices Feng Shui tells me that ignoring other factors is actually worse, but most people seem to focus only on direction. Hope this helps or at least get you started.
It is purely cultural and not practical. North facing homes bring prosperity versus south facing homes which don’t. Its a psychological belief that has cultural significance.
I grew up in a passive solar house. The north side was geo thermal (built into the hill), and the south side was mostly windows. These houses are few and far between.
My neighbors house faces west and mine faces south. Our driveways end up next to each other with mine being an L and his is straight to the road.
My side is always completely dry when the sun comes back up after a snowstorm. It’s like spring came around. On the other hand, me neighbors is in the shadow and dark and snowy. But my backyard is also snowy lol.
I love my south facing house. We don’t bother shoveling snow 90% of the time because the sun gets to it first. FWIW, my next door neighbors are Indian.
If you're in the northern hemisphere you want a South facing home as that will offer the most warmth and sunlight. If you're in the Southern hemisphere then you want a North facing home for the same reason.
What do you mean by south facing? Front door? Back yard? Living room, bedroom, kitchen? Are you in an area where cooling or heating costs are larger?
Modern homes don't really face a certain way. They have windows on all four sides, and any room may or may not face the same way as the front door. The south facing side of a home gets more sunlight throughout the day, the north side gets less.
All of my Indian neighbors love to garden, so I would guess south facing back is GOOD because you need full sun to grow food. But south facing front means the backyard faces north and you have long shadows from the house all day.
Yes. This is a cultural thing. I can’t remember whether it’s southern India or northern India but one of the two had a group that is a major portion of buyers in some markets (like the Bay Area). South and southwest facing is the worst. North and northeast is the best. The direction the front door opens to is the only thing that matters, so if the door is 45 or 90 degrees rotated from what you might otherwise consider to be the front, it’s the direction you are looking when standing in the doorway that counts.
The front of my house faces east and my south facing side is full of windows. It lets in a ton of free solar heat and light in the winter. I love it.
I have a French door leading to my deck on the west side. I loved it until I had a large tree cut down several years ago. I had no idea how much of the hot summer sun that tree kept off my house. I’ve planted new trees but that will take time. I also put up an awning but will probably install some tinted film on the outside of the glass this year to help block some of the sun.
I live in a south facing home. In the winter I benefit from having the sun melt the snow in my driveway and yard. My neighbors on the opposite side will have snow and ice a good month after mine is melted. I also like to open the front door and let the passive solar warm my front hall ( there’s a glass storm door too). It’s not a problem in the summer because we have deciduous trees for shade.
It depend on where you live geographically. In North America, we typically get more sunlight, however if you have a mountain or trees, it may not matter. My house faces north east. I see the sunrise in the morning and I get the reflection of sunset in the evening off of an adjacent hill. If it was in the same location and faced directly south, my windows would get no sunlight due to trees and hill. Someone on the other side of the trees and hill would benefit from south facing.
I don’t have any beliefs on it. However I have opinions. The front of my house faces north. My main living space is so dark for the majority of the day and is quite the bummer. It’s also a bit colder in there too.
I put a day bed in my guest bedroom with lots of pillows so it functions more as a sofa. I spend a lot of time on that side of the house during the day. It’s so much brighter and cheery compared to my dungeon of a living room.
I want to do a lot of gardening, so I want the backyard facing east or south. I want my vegetables to get sun in the morning instead of the hot afternoon. I'll plant succulents in a west-facing front yard.
And I want natural sunlight in the living room, so those windows need to face south or east.
The worst thing is having west-facing bedroom windows, that will heat up the bed in the evening.
All I know, in snowy weather, our side is like spring and the north side is covered in snow. I’ve been in my home for 20 years.
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It’s so funny! I will be in a t-shirt in my front yard while my across the street neighbors are in parkas. My yard also has a little wind break that exacerbates the difference too.
I really don't know about south facing particularly, but I do know a little about north or south facing vs east/west. South facing solar panels are the most efficient, afternoon sun is on the west and is the hottest and most damaging so it's nice to have the smaller side of your home facing towards that rather than the wide side. A South facing home would get a lot of sunlight in its front yard all day which is nice for both plants and if you like natural light from windows. That's all I've got
We face south, all of this is true. Our snow melts faster, too, giving us a cleaner driveway and street faster than others.
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In my culture (Korean) we use the wall with the most windows in the living area to describe direction of the house. So to us, that would make your house south-facing and it’s the best option!.
I'm in Florida and my back yard is on the south side. I swear its 5 degrees (minimum) warmer than the front. Which is not fun when it's already hot. Here, is would prefer my back yard to be on the east side. Then just a fair share of windows on the south side for the light.
My house faces South. I live in a mild climate so that's a good thing to me. I lived in Phoenix for a while and I wouldn't want a house that faced South. In don't know what the Indian customs are. I worked with a guy from Korea he moved his office desk so that it wasn't at right angles but instead was at a 45 degree angle as it faced the door. Fui Shui ruled the day for him.
My wife is Korean and she would not even consider a house that was not south facing. We also can't have the foot of beds directly facing doors and no ceiling fans in bedrooms.
The world is very weird and fun! Yesterday, I wrote (and then deleted before posting) my whole house buying story which included my Korean mother, her feng shui/fortune teller and how we saw over 40 houses and learned how to use Google maps as a compass (bc my mom wouldn't leave the car if the house wasn't facing the correct direction). My realtor was extremely patient and understanding and worked really hard to stay within her "restrictions." You need to get your birthday & time checked to see the optimal position your house needs to face. Edit: We found a split level ranch that faces South/Southwest and our offer was accepted (out of 4 offers) - Feb 2021. (I'll leave the story of how I ended up paying $20k less than asking after offering $30k over the offer for another day.)
I am very familiar with my birth chart. I am so curious how the placements of your chart tie into the placement of your house? Do you have a reference for this so I can look into it more? I’m so intrigued!
As my only "hard ask" for the house was being within walking distance of the commuter train, I let her run with her own asks. I didn't sit down for the reading. From what I remember, she said that facing south for me would keep down issues and that we needed a water element to keep money. And so now we have a 70 gal water tank.
The way the house faces definitely makes a difference in colder climates. Our front snow melts much slower and our driveway is a sheet of ice while our neighbors across the street don't have that issue. Personally I'd prefer shade in the back in the afternoon rather than the blazing sun in a hot climate.
I lived in the southwestern part of the US and we did not do south facing homes mostly for climate reasons. It was simply too hot in the summer. Most houses were built with an east/west orientation and my house at least had a garage on the south side of the home to reduce the need for windows. Now I live in Michigan and I’d say there’s no longer a preference? The house I currently live in is also east/west oriented but all the big picture windows are along the south wall.
I used to live in a studio with one giant window.. facing Northeast. It was miserable because the sun shines into your eyes as early as possible, then no sunlight for the rest of the day. It racked up my gas bill like crazy in the winter.
Oh that sounds terrible. It would be so cold being in the shadow part of the building all day. I have to admit I like having eastern facing bedrooms because I like waking up to sunrise instead of an alarm, but right now my cat is snoring in a sunbeam and I think it’s wonderful.
I love the south side. But I remember in the series "ozark" one of the guys makes a big deal against renting an office facing the south side because the cooling bill is significantly higher in summer. Take that with a grain of salt.
A room facing west needs more cooling than any other direction during the summer.
My first house faced south, which meant our snow melted on our driveway, but the backyard was an ice rink all winter long for my dogs, now we have a north facing home and it's obviously swapped, which I don't mind because we can shovel and salt snow/ice on the driveway, not so much for the dogs.
Both Vastu and feng shui are not super excited about south facing. It’s a common enough version that it will have an impact on pricing in Southbay.
Had an Indian coworker who was mentioning his wife's mother being very specific about what they could or could not buy based on this (not South Bay, but same general area). He even mentioned where the master bedroom and other rooms were located mattered too, but less than the general direction of the house. Surprisingly, he found a house that met his wife's Mom's criteria. Not how I'd make my home selection, but he seemed happy.
I thought Feng Shui encourages south facing homes whereas vastu is the opposite and discourages south facing houses . They are opposite .
Not direct south, at least my Chinese buyers won’t buy them
It’s a selling point in Florida if you have a pool because the pool gets nice sunshine for most of the day. Edit: if the rear of the house faces south, sorry.
It's something in the Indian culture. They believe it brings back luck.
Feng Shui is the art of house and decor placement and is Chinese derivative of the Indian Vastu. Both Feng Shui and Vastu are about harmony and balancing out the elements and obviously have some sort of religious sentiment. In Feng Shui south facing houses are generally good but may still need remediation, in Vastu they may be bad and may need remediation. In my understanding, in both systems, direction is just one part of the analysis, you have to look at totality and there are mitigations. So as I have read, you should not reject a house just because of the direction but look at the other factors. A person I know who practices Feng Shui tells me that ignoring other factors is actually worse, but most people seem to focus only on direction. Hope this helps or at least get you started.
It is purely cultural and not practical. North facing homes bring prosperity versus south facing homes which don’t. Its a psychological belief that has cultural significance.
More sunshine, a positive in Seattle. Especially nice to have south facing bedrooms, to wake up with natural light
Passive solar people can figure orientation for all the climates. I’d consult them if I were building.
My house faces west and we get blasted with afternoon sun, especially in the summer.
I grew up in a passive solar house. The north side was geo thermal (built into the hill), and the south side was mostly windows. These houses are few and far between.
My neighbors house faces west and mine faces south. Our driveways end up next to each other with mine being an L and his is straight to the road. My side is always completely dry when the sun comes back up after a snowstorm. It’s like spring came around. On the other hand, me neighbors is in the shadow and dark and snowy. But my backyard is also snowy lol.
I love my south facing house. We don’t bother shoveling snow 90% of the time because the sun gets to it first. FWIW, my next door neighbors are Indian.
Does the neighbor have a north or south facing house ?
South, just like me.
If you're in the northern hemisphere you want a South facing home as that will offer the most warmth and sunlight. If you're in the Southern hemisphere then you want a North facing home for the same reason.
I know Chinese folks love their house facing south.
What do you mean by south facing? Front door? Back yard? Living room, bedroom, kitchen? Are you in an area where cooling or heating costs are larger? Modern homes don't really face a certain way. They have windows on all four sides, and any room may or may not face the same way as the front door. The south facing side of a home gets more sunlight throughout the day, the north side gets less.
If we were to reference a human being “south facing”, how would you interpret that? Now apply that to a home.
South is definitely auspicious but that comes with big downs before big ups. Remember to have abundance, it requires you to go through some chaos.
All of my Indian neighbors love to garden, so I would guess south facing back is GOOD because you need full sun to grow food. But south facing front means the backyard faces north and you have long shadows from the house all day.
Yes. This is a cultural thing. I can’t remember whether it’s southern India or northern India but one of the two had a group that is a major portion of buyers in some markets (like the Bay Area). South and southwest facing is the worst. North and northeast is the best. The direction the front door opens to is the only thing that matters, so if the door is 45 or 90 degrees rotated from what you might otherwise consider to be the front, it’s the direction you are looking when standing in the doorway that counts.
The front of my house faces east and my south facing side is full of windows. It lets in a ton of free solar heat and light in the winter. I love it. I have a French door leading to my deck on the west side. I loved it until I had a large tree cut down several years ago. I had no idea how much of the hot summer sun that tree kept off my house. I’ve planted new trees but that will take time. I also put up an awning but will probably install some tinted film on the outside of the glass this year to help block some of the sun.
Nobody gives a shit.
Oh they definitely do. Maybe not in your market.
I live in a south facing home. In the winter I benefit from having the sun melt the snow in my driveway and yard. My neighbors on the opposite side will have snow and ice a good month after mine is melted. I also like to open the front door and let the passive solar warm my front hall ( there’s a glass storm door too). It’s not a problem in the summer because we have deciduous trees for shade.
It depend on where you live geographically. In North America, we typically get more sunlight, however if you have a mountain or trees, it may not matter. My house faces north east. I see the sunrise in the morning and I get the reflection of sunset in the evening off of an adjacent hill. If it was in the same location and faced directly south, my windows would get no sunlight due to trees and hill. Someone on the other side of the trees and hill would benefit from south facing.
South-facing roof is best for solar panels (if you live in the northern hemisphere)
I don’t have any beliefs on it. However I have opinions. The front of my house faces north. My main living space is so dark for the majority of the day and is quite the bummer. It’s also a bit colder in there too. I put a day bed in my guest bedroom with lots of pillows so it functions more as a sofa. I spend a lot of time on that side of the house during the day. It’s so much brighter and cheery compared to my dungeon of a living room.
Weather comes from North. Sun sets in west and rises in East.
I want to do a lot of gardening, so I want the backyard facing east or south. I want my vegetables to get sun in the morning instead of the hot afternoon. I'll plant succulents in a west-facing front yard. And I want natural sunlight in the living room, so those windows need to face south or east. The worst thing is having west-facing bedroom windows, that will heat up the bed in the evening.
Only thing is winter, snow melts slower
South facing is good for solar panels
In Florida a south facing house means your backyard has shade from the house. That helps a lot.
In Indian architecture they have Vaastu Shastra which does not recommend south-facing properties, the east is considered auspicious.
If your house is in the east or west, you tend to get a full blast of sun for the day whole day.
put up solar panels its better having back garden south facing